United Aircraft has flown a Yakovlev Superjet 100 testbed, fitted with Aviadvigatel PD-8 engines, to the test airfield at Moscow Zhukovsky.
The aircraft, serial number 95157, was designed for PowerJet SaM146 engines but is serving as a PD-8 platform for the import-substituted SJ-100 programme.
It has been transferred to Zhukovsky from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to join the certification programme for the SJ-100 at the Gromov institute.
Two pilots and a flight-test engineer were on board for the 8h flight, which operated via Novosibirsk.
“On this aircraft, specialists will perform flights to evaluate the characteristics of the main propulsion system,” says United Aircraft.
The SJ-100 programme involves swapping foreign-built equipment and components for domestically-produced equivalents.
United Aircraft carried out the first flight of the PD-8-equipped Superjet in March this year. It has already transferred the initial fully-substituted SJ-100 prototype to Zhukovsky.
